Ward Cleaning at the Horton

Dawn Griffis (née Alsford)

I was a pre-nursing and nursing student to be an SRN from 1956 to 1961 at the
Horton General Hospital in Banbury. Those were the days when we worked on the
wards anywhere from 50 to 72 hours a week and we got our lectures in our spare
time! It was instilled in us that if the little things were not important to
us then the big things wouldn't be either. That could be interpreted that
cleanliness was the most important thing - if everywhere wasn't clean then we
would have cross infections, wound infections etc. I can honestly say during my
stay at the Horton we never had a hospital induced infection. It was important
for the students to do the bulk of the work so we could learn how clean we
should expect a ward to be. I wonder if they could say the same today?

A large part of this cleaning was performed on a weekly cleaning day for each
ward. In those days the largest wards each had 36 beds plus an amenity room and
a private room to bring the total to 38 beds. At times when needed 4 extra beds
could be put up in the middle of the ward, with moving furniture around. A-Ward
was men's medical; B-Ward was Women's medical; C-Ward was men's surgical;
& D-Ward was women's surgical.

The cleaning day started as soon as the patients were finished with their
breakfasts. At that point all of the beds and furniture were moved to one side
of the ward. With long handled dust mops we did all the high dusting including
the ceilings. The radiator duster a long wooden handled with rolled up
sheepskin came out next to clean inside and outside of the radiators. Inside
the windows were cleaned. With that completed then medicated sand was thrown on
the floor to be swept up without circulating dust into the air. At this point
the porter came in to run the electric scrubber to scrub the floors. After the
floor was dry then they were waxed. While he was doing that we had to lift the
heads of the beds that were visible to us onto blocks, (baring in mind the
patients were all in their beds) then we scrubbed the backs of the beds and
scraped and scrubbed the wheels on the beds. Wheels & floors are a great
transporter of bacteria. When this was completed then the beds & furniture was
moved to the other side of the ward for the whole thing to be repeated again.
When that was done we then pushed the beds back to where they belonged so that
we could clean the centre of the ward the same way including the wheels at the
foot of the beds. The furniture in the centre were scrubbed and polished. All
of this must be finished so that a bedpan round could be done before lunch was
served at 12 noon.

A group of nurse working in the operating theatre Christmas 1961 - Dawn Alsford is next to Sister

There is a humorous story to this exercise. I had been working B- Ward for 12
weeks, the designated time for each student to work a ward to meet educational
requirements. I was not transferred off as I should have been. The students
that transferred in 5 in all, were all from the same class and 6 months ahead
of me. There were no other students on the ward senior to them. They started
arguing amongst themselves as to who should have the senior duties & who should
be assigned the more menial tasks. Sister Cook the head one on the ward was a
very gentle person who always hid from controversy so she did not sort it out.
Guess who got stuck with all the menial tasks - me. We went through a ward
cleaning day with the 5 of them refusing to help me, luckily we had a maid who
helped me. During the following week we had an influx of patients so that we
had 4 extra beds up in the ward and only 2 of the patients could get out of bed
without help. I was facing a repeat of the previous cleaning day only worse.
So that morning early I climbed out of my bedroom window in the nurses home &
caught the early bus home to Oxford (my parents were living there at the time).
I knew when I arrived there would be a telegram from Matron telling my mother
to send me back. There was. Mum asked what it was all about I told her. She
said I needed to eat my dinner before returning.

When I arrived back at the Horton I had to see Matron. She asked me why I had
done it - I told her - I also told her that I had met my women's medical
commitment 2 weeks earlier and should have been transferred out already, and
plus I did not like B-Ward. She said to me a true nurse should like medical
nursing. I told her then I guess I wasn't a true nurse because I hated it. That
I wanted to specialize in the operating theatre. She told me to go to my room &
report to her office the next morning for my new assignment.

Of interest Matron never assigned me to another medical ward until my 3rd year
and I was allowed to stay in the operating theatre longer than normal.
I don't know if I ever made it to being a "true nurse" because I still hate
medical nursing, but as of March 2004 this year I have been a nurse for 48
years, so maybe I am! I do plan to retire in September 2006 making it 50½
years.